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Crew Studies Space Agriculture, Biotechnology to Promote Future Missions

Tuesday’s International Space Station research objectives included learning how to grow crops on spacecraft and produce vitamins and nutrients in space to sustain crews farther away from Earth. The Expedition 72 crewmates also explored how the human body orients itself in weightlessness and serviced a pair of docked spacecraft.

NASA Flight Engineers Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague joined each other on Tuesday setting up hardware for the Plant Habitat-07 botany experiment inside the Kibo laboratory module. Wilmore installed the science carrier that is packed with red romaine lettuce seeds in Kibo’s Advanced Plant Habitat then collected water samples for analysis. Hague prepared water refill bags and injected water into the plant habitat to begin growing a small crop of lettuce. The space agriculture investigation is exploring optimal plant growth methods in space, the nutritional content of space-grown plants, and the types of microbes they support.

NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit studied how space radiation exposure affects plant growth at the molecular and cellular levels. He processed samples and watered thale cress plants that had been growing for two weeks in Kibo’s Cell Biology Experiment Facility. The samples were then placed inside a science freezer for future analysis. The Plant UV-B study is observing how microgravity stress and high ultraviolet radiation affects plants to promote growing space crops

Commander Suni Williams continued her investigation into using genetically engineered yeast to produce on-demand nutrients and avoid vitamin deficiencies on long-term missions. She first hydrated production packs containing the yeast and edible media for incubation to activate yeast growth. Williams then photographed and agitated the packs before stowing them inside a research incubator. The samples are later frozen then returned to Earth to analyze their ability promote crew health and improve the preservation of probiotics.

In the orbital outpost’s Roscosmos segment, Flight Engineers Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner took turns wearing a virtual reality headset while attached to electrodes. The two cosmonauts were studying how a crew member’s vision, balance, and spatial orientation adjusts to microgravity. Ovchinin then replaced life support gear inside the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship before gathering items for disposal inside the Progress 89 cargo craft. Vagner pointed a camera outside the Zvezda service module and photographed components on the Nauka science module for routine inspection.

Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov turned off and stowed a student-controlled camera that photographed pre-programmed Earth landmarks. He then searched areas inside the station’s Roscosmos segment for extra cargo stowage space then worked on Nauka’s ventilation system.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia

Biotechnology to Sustain Crews on Long Missions Tops Research Schedule

Biotechnology to Sustain Crews on Long Missions Tops Research Schedule

Biotechnology kicked off the work week aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 72 crew members explored ways to counter the effects of microgravity and produce vitamins and nutrients during long-term space missions.

The lack of gravity leads body fluids to move toward an astronaut’s head potentially causing eye structure and vision problems. NASA Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Butch Wilmore spent all day Monday investigating the phenomena using a thigh cuff as a potential countermeasure to the headward fluid shifts. Hague wore electrodes and the thigh cuff as Wilmore performed an ultrasound scan on Hague, measured his eye fluid pressure, and checked his blood pressure testing the effectiveness of the biomedical device. The tight leg cuffs are compact and lightweight, ideal for spacecraft, and may help protect crews on missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Providing vitamins and nutrients to keep crews healthy is another key research goal as NASA and its international partners plan longer-term missions farther away from Earth. Station Commander Suni Williams reviewed procedures on Monday for the BioNutrients biotechnology study to demonstrate producing fresh nutrients in space. Preserving nutrients on long-term space missions causes them to degrade over time. However, using genetically engineered yeast to enable on-demand production of nutrients to supplement potential vitamin losses from the stored food may benefit crews traveling longer and farther away from Earth.

NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit spent his day inside the Tranquility module on orbital plumbing duties replacing hydraulic components on the waste and hygiene compartment, or the space station’s bathroom.

Cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner started their day testing communications with the Progress 89 cargo craft due to depart at the end of February after six months docked to the rear port of the Zvezda service module.

Ovchinin then moved on and worked on Zvezda’s ventilation system and began packing the Progress 89 with trash and discarded gear. Vagner worked on orbital plumbing inside Zvezda’s bathroom repairing pumps and pipes inside the Roscosmos segment’s toilet. Flight Engineer Aleksandr Gorbunov spent his day inside the Nauka science module first swapping out electrical hardware then inspecting and cleaning laptop computers.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark A. Garcia